The ant and the bird
The story in this post is about how a little bird saw a little ant struggling in the water and decided to go to its rescue. He plucked a leaf with its beak, flew to the ant, and dropped it just in front of the ant. The ant was saved. In turn, one day, the same ant saw a hunter aiming at the little bird. He needed to do something. The ant bit the hunter’s leg and he let off a shout. The little bird was alerted and flew away, just in time. The little bird was saved.
I love to tell this story when I was little
It is a nice feeling that you can be the “saviour” of the day. And I enjoyed telling the experience in doing that. I enjoyed doing a good turn when I can. It does not matter if I get a “thank you”. I have done a good turn. That was all that mattered.
Doing good turns opportunistically
In the Public Health class that I am teaching, there are positive sentiments on doing good turns to help one other. Postgraduate study verifies what Jon Donne writes about “No man is an island…” Helping one another to have a better grip of things despite the individual tyrannies of the urgent is felt by all my postgraduate students to be a good thing. And they talked about “leaving no one behind”.
Take home message
It has been said that a friend in need is a friend indeed. Doing a good turn to a fellow man is laudable. It gives us a positive meaning to our existence, just like the little ant and the little bird in the above story.
Dr LG Goh
Dr GOH Lee Gan is a retired Associate Professor in the Department of Family Medicine, National University Health System. He has an interest in learning and teaching how we can age well everyday (AWE).
